The BenMar is one of Harrisburg’s newest apartment buildings. According to a new report, there’s demand in the area for many more.
If you’ve been having trouble finding an apartment in central PA, recent data supports your struggle.
According to a just-released report, the Harrisburg area is the most competitive small rental market in the country.
RentCafé, a national apartment search website, states that 96.2% of apartments in the seven-county, south-central PA region are occupied.
“Apartment seekers in Harrisburg face significant challenges in finding vacant places, as only about 4% of rentals are available,” according to the report, which was released last week.
By “Harrisburg,” the company means the entire region that comprises Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties.
The tight market makes “apartment hunting feel like looking for a needle in a haystack,” according to RentCafé.
The report states that a prospective renter needs to compete with 13 other hopefuls to secure a lease in the Harrisburg area—four times more than the national average.
Source: RentCafé
For its analysis, RentCafé compiled data from 137 rental markets in the United States of multi-family properties of at least 50 units.
The Harrisburg area had a “competitive score” of 123, which actually was higher than all markets—large and small—in the nation. The Miami-Dade, Fla., market, which ranked first among large national markets, had a “competitive score” of 120.
In its report, RentCafé also states that the Harrisburg region’s rental market is twice as tight as that in Philadelphia.
For small markets, the Harrisburg area was followed by Fayetteville, Ark., and Providence, R.I., in RentCafé’s analysis.
According to the company, not only is demand strong, but there’s been a lack of new construction, exacerbating the situation. According to RentCafé’s statistics, the area has added “zero” net new apartment units recently.
“Besides the cost of living and the convenience of renting here (just about everything you need is within 20 minutes by car), people calling Harrisburg home are also close to major metros like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York City and Washington, D.C.,” the report states.
Click here to read the full report. Scroll down to view the small market data.
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